Good Morning Digitial Neighbors! Another week unfolds and we will see were the insanity of modern living leads us. Did you know there is a big strike going on in Hollywood? Me either. I can't say I have given much time or attention to any coming out Hollywood, said by actors or produced by studios. It seems about the same can be said of the music industry. I don't doubt I am missing something in music and spend too much time going back to the glory days of rock in the decades preceding this century. I feel particularly curmudgeonly this morning. Not the crab ass, irascible type of curmudgeon raising his fist at the degeneration of things, more like the old fart grunting from behind his newspaper while sipping on coffee. There are few newspapers to be found, that is one improvement I can appreciate. I still enjoy my old movies and music, I hope to discover new artists, musicians and movies or forms of entertainment new to me. They made be old to you, but I don't discount my ability to miss a great many things in life. I don't doubt I have missed some amazing artists, actors and musicians over the years.
The churning of curmudgeon thoughts against much of entertainment is something akin to my distrust of sugar. It is sweet, addictive and more damaging than we know until we unwittingly accept its presence in our life and our need for it. Sugar as a very limited additive can still be good, but it saturating everything is toxic to ones diet and health. What sugar is to the body, too much mindless consumption of entertainment is to the mind/soul. I am sure I have more to grunt about, but I need to refill my coffee and get on with the morning. Thanks for listening. Happy Monday Friends & Refugees, Early Birds & Later Dayers, Conversants & Lurkers (Still miss you @SEPTUAGENARIAN )Phamily, Misfits & Dawn Patrol and of course all you ADD Irregulars, WSN Curators, Black Sheep, Wanderers and Seekers.
A couple of quotes from the Portable Curmudgeon and a nice barn.
It is the most minor of gifts and not a very high-class way to earn a living. After all, Shirley Temple could do it at the age of four. - Katharine Hepburn
There are two kinds of music—good music and bad music. Good music is music that I want to hear. Bad music is music that I don’t want to hear. - Fran Lebowitz
Summer barn in Minnesota
Today marks the three hundred and thirtieth birthday of the Frenchman François-Marie Arouet, better known by his nom de plume, Voltaire (1694-1778).
Born into a bourgeois family during the reign of Louis XIV, the “Sun King” (r. 1643-1715), Voltaire suffered tragedy at a young age when his mother died. Never close with his father or brother, Voltaire exhibited a rebellious attitude toward authority from his youth. His brilliant mind was fostered in the care of the Society of Jesus, who introduced him to the joys of literature and theater. Despite his later criticisms against the Church, Voltaire, throughout his life, fondly recalled his dedicated Jesuit teachers.
Although he spent time as a civil servant in the French embassy to the Hague, Voltaire’s main love was writing—an endeavor where he excelled in various genres, including poetry, which led to his appointment as the royal court poet for King Louis XV. Widely recognized as one of the greatest French writers, and even hyperbolically referred to by ...
Padre - Tom Miller invites you to a Coffee Talk, Speakeasies, Schmoozes, Tea Times, Afterhours and other gatherings.
https://teams.live.com/meet/93792382189049?p=DiBHsYfuECPgDrG7vO
2026 Coffee Talk with the ADD Irregulars
Thursday, January 1, 2026
6:00 AM - 8:00 AM (CST)
Occurs every day starting 1/1 until 12/31/2027
Coffee Talk - Daily beginning at 6:00 AM Central Time Zone - USA
White Pilled Wednesday - A break from the heaviness of news and current events to focus upon things more personal & positive for the first hour of Coffee Talk.
Afternoon Chats - Most Tuesday, Friday & Sundays 2:00 PM Central
Other chats as posted in the community.
Happy Friday, Digital Neighbors!! Slept in a little this morning. Woke up at my ordinary time, hit the hour timer, and wandered back into short, incoherent dreamland. It was a good hour to try and get a little more rest after a long day yesterday. We had a good staff team-building day with personal prayer and then looking at the DISC tool as a way to appreciate our gifts as we work together for the good of our parish family.
Had a meeting in the evening to explore using our auditorium for an Emergency Overnight Shelter in the winter for the homeless and unhoused in our local area. Lots of potential, lots of work if that is to come to fruition. As I mentioned last night, this is where the rubber hits the road on personal charity. People feel comfortable giving money to support charities, but the possibility of hosting and staffing one is way out of the comfort zone for most. Prayer and time will tell.
Off to some “ifferisms” for your Friday cup of Joe.
If you get gloomy, just take an ...
The Beautiful
Said the Disciple to the Lover, “Sir, before I left the world I heard certain men who were held in high esteem and thought to know the will of the Beloved say that those who loved the Beautiful did not love the Beloved but loved idols, yet in the Garden of the Beloved we are ever striving to create beauty for the pleasure of the Beloved. Were they then speaking the truth?”
The Lover answered, “Those who said this had never glimpsed the form of the Beloved nor ever truly sought Him, for all beauty is but the reflection of the beauty of the Beloved, although seen very dimly as in a dark and faulty mirror, even as all goodness is a dim reflection of the goodness of the Beloved. So it is that those who love beauty and goodness recognize dimly in them the form of the Beloved and though often in ignorance those who are seeking the Beautiful and the Good are seeking after the Beloved.”
